John Bond

Chairman, Vodafone Group PLC

Sir John Bond became Chairman of Vodafone Group Plc on 25 July 2006 having previously served as a Non-Executive Director.

Previously he was Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc until May 2006, when he stepped down after a 45 year career with HSBC. Sir John joined The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in 1961 and worked in Asia for 25 years and the USA for four years, before coming to London in 1993. He became Group Chief Executive of HSBC Holdings on 1 January 1993 when HSBC merged with Midland Bank plc, and became Group Chairman on 29 May 1998.

His previous appointments include non-executive director of Ford Motor Company from 2000 to 2008, London Stock Exchange from 1994 to 1999, British Steel plc from 1994 to 1998 and Orange plc from 1996 to 1999; he was also on the Court of the Bank of England from 2001 to 2004. He was Chairman of the Institute of International Finance, Washington DC (an organisation of over 300 banks) from 1998 to 2003 and was elected President of the International Monetary Conference (IMC) in June 2002.

Following his education in the UK, Sir John held an English-Speaking Union Scholarship in the USA from 1959 to 1960; from November 1997 to December 2003 he was a Governor of the English-Speaking Union. He was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in 1983.

His Knighthood was conferred for services to banking in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1999. In 2003 Sir John was awarded both the Magnolia Gold Award by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and the Foreign Policy Association, New York's Gold Medal.

Married with two daughters and a son, his interests include skiing, golf and reading biographies.

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